COUNCIL CUTS MORE INTO MAYOR’S POWER

Wood ‘angry’ after trio pulls him from transit agency, strips ability to name deputy mayor

Oceanside Mayor Jim Wood was stripped of his power to appoint the deputy mayor and dumped from his slot as the city’s primary representative on a local transit agency on Wednesday by a three-member City Council majority.

“I’m angry about it; I don’t think it’s right. I think you lose respect for the mayor,” Wood said. But, he added, “I’ll live through it.”

The same council majority — councilmen Gary Felien, Jerry Kern and Jack Feller — voted in January to remove Wood as the city’s representative on the San Diego Association of Governments, a regional planning agency.

The move to further trim Wood’s authority and yank him from the North County Transit District was proposed by Felien, who said he wanted to “broaden participation in regional boards and commissions.”

Wood and Councilwoman Esther Sanchez voted no.

Also at Wednesday’s meeting, Felien withdrew his proposal to close city offices on Presidents Day in February. He said last week that he wanted City Hall to shut down in honor of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, just as it does for one day in January to mark the birthday of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Felien said his plan ran into too much public opposition.

“We’ll take a better look, smooth some ruffled feathers, and come back another day,” Felien said, adding that he didn’t mean to detract from King’s accomplishments, but to give greater acknowledgment to Washington and Lincoln.

“We were kind of overlooking the achievements of our founding fathers,” Felien said. “Our founding fathers were kind of being shoved aside.”

In pushing to reduce the mayor’s authority, the council continued a movement it started in January when — over the objections of Wood and Sanchez — Felien, Kern and Feller passed an ordinance giving the council majority the power to overrule the mayor in making appointments to regional agencies like SANDAG, the transit district and the San Diego County Water Authority.

On Wednesday, that same council majority appointed Feller as the primary representative to SANDAG, with Felien as the alternative.

They also appointed Felien as the primary representative to the transit district, with Feller as the alternate.

The majority also removed Brian Boyle as the city’s representative to the San Diego County Water Authority, replacing him with Kern. Boyle, who works for a company that makes and installs water conservation systems, was appointed two years ago by a different council.

Sanchez called the actions “an absolute insult to the citizens of Oceanside,” who re-elected Wood in November as mayor to a third four-year term with 54 percent of the vote.

“You want to strip the mayor of his mayoral powers. Why? Because he beat you,” Sanchez said.

In January, Wood moved to appoint Sanchez deputy mayor, but Felien, Feller and Kern refused to accept her. The mayor had the authority to appoint the deputy mayor, but the appointment required council approval.

The deputy mayor’s job is largely ceremonial, but Wood said he should be able to appoint someone who shares his point of view.

“If it’s so important for you to be deputy mayor, you should run for mayor,” Wood said.

Felien said the deputy mayor’s job should be rotated annually among council members in a way that no one will have the post in a year when they’re up for re-election.

The council majority instructed City Attorney John Mullen to return at a later date with an ordinance putting in place procedures in which council members would become deputy mayor by rotation, rather than allowing the mayor to make the appointment.

“That will then allow everyone the chance to be deputy mayor,” Felien said. He said such a system should eliminate friction among council members.

In an unrelated matter, the council in a 3-2 vote rejected a proposal to use $500,000 of city money for loans to small businesses, with Wood, Kern and Sanchez voting no.

Sanchez said she’d rather spend the loan money replacing deteriorated public restrooms at the beach or sprucing up Coast Highway.